Aereo plans to launch in 19 cities by August

Aereo is on the verge of expanding its online antenna/DVR technology to 19 new U.S. cities by the end of next months.

That's according to Aereo CEO and founder Chet Kanojia, who made the revelation in a fireside-style chat at CE Week conference in New York. Having originally started out in New York City, Aero then expanded to Boston and Atlanta, letting customers rent a remote antenna, which they can use to transmit local OTA television content to their mobile devices, and tans advantage of a remote DVR functionality.

The service did not go unnoticed by broadcasters, who felt Aereo was violating copyrights and should be liable to pay retransmission fees for the service.

To this point, Aereo has managed to shrug off every major challenge in the courts, and is seeking declaratory judgement in New York, which could declare the ruling in that district as applicable to the entire country. Otherwise, Aereo is open to new lawsuits every time it expands into a new district.

"What really is at stake...is your ability to control your own media," Kanojia said, adding that big media companies are telling consumers they must pay a tax every time they store media away from home. He also said the company is prepared to be unprofitable as it fights the battle in court and fine tunes its service to make it more attractive.